Scott Lay of The Nooner compiled a chart of the largest and smallest increases in voter registration between when registration closed for last June’s primary and last month — and when it comes to “smallest increases,” WE’RE #1! And #2! And #3 through #7! Yes, this is the doing of Registrar of Voters’ Neal Kelley’s purge of inactive voters from the active rolls, previously addressed at the above link! You can view the carnage in this chart. (Note: this is not actually carnage carnage, but if people don’t vote between now and 2014 they will have to re-register before the 2015-2016 cycle if they want to vote for Hillary. Um, I mean, for U.S. President.)

Smallest Increases in Registration Between May 21, 2012 and February 10, 2013 Report

Obviously, Orange County districts are significantly impacted by the most aggressive voter roll review, which led to the declaration that 285,000 voters were “inactive” because they had not voted in the last four years.

By the Voting Rights Act’s Hammer, something looks wrong here! I suspect that there may be partisan machinations here! Lay continues:

Before anyone jumps to partisan accusations, of the 214,480 removed from the report to the state between the May 21, 2012 and February 10, 2013 report, 63,511 were Democrats, 96,252 were Republicans, and 45,304 were no party preference.

NEVER MIND! NOTHING TO SEE HERE! MOVE ALONG!

(That reasonably closely tracks the partisan split among OC voters, especially taking into account that Republicans tend to be older and thus to become deader quicker.)

All right, admittedly, these results are more likely to affect bragging rights by the parties rather than election results. Some of these inactive voters are, as noted, recently-ish deceased, and probably will not re-register during this two year period. (One hopes not, anyway.) Still, it’s interesting to see where the percentage declines are greatest — which seems pretty much to track alongside Assembly District ideology, with more liberal districts showing larger drops. This is, I’ll bet, largely due to more transient populations — and it does suggest that the Democratic Party needs to find those who moved and encourage them to contact the Registrar for reactivation.

(You may note the anomaly of AD 55, my district up north. The smaller drop here reflects that the district is shared with Los Angeles and San Bernardino Counties. (OC provided about 30,000 of Democrat Gregg Fritchle’s 65,000 votes, but almost 57,000 of Republican Curt Hagman’s more than 97,000. My guess is that the smaller percentage is in error, perhaps failing to factor in the smaller denominator. If not, then come up to AD-55, people, because we’re apparently less likely to die!)

This is a holiday weekend — Cesar Chavez Day, Easter, and the tail-end of Passover — so many people (especially public servants, I’ve found) may be out and about, which is why I’ve written something dry for this week’s WOT rather than juicy. (Just wait until next week for that!) We at OJB wish you all, depending on what you celebrate, one, two, or three happy of the above.) Sadly, we missed noting the Hindu holiday of Holi this past Wednesday — but at least we can use that for our picture!)

Next year, we’ve REALLY got to get all of OC’s politicians together to celebrate this.

This is, as you may have suspected from the headline, your Weekend Open Thread. Talk about this, that, the other thing, or whatever’s on your mind, within broad boundaries of discretion and decorum.

About Greg Diamond

Somewhat verbose worker's rights and government accountability attorney, residing in northwest Brea. General Counsel of CATER, the Coalition of Anaheim Taxpayers for Economic Responsibility, a non-partisan group of people sick of local corruption.
Deposed as Northern Vice Chair of DPOC in April 2014 when his anti-corruption and pro-consumer work in Anaheim infuriated the Building Trades and Teamsters in spring 2014, who then worked with the lawless and power-mad DPOC Chair to eliminate his internal oversight.
Occasionally runs for office to challenge some nasty incumbent who would otherwise run unopposed. (Someday he might pick a fight with the intent to win rather than just dent someone. You'll know it when you see it.) He got 45% of the vote against Bob Huff for State Senate in 2012 and in 2014 became the first attorney to challenge OCDA Tony Rackauckas since 2002.
None of his pre-putsch writings ever spoke for the Democratic Party at the local, county, state, national, or galactic level, nor do they now.
A family member co-owns a business offering campaign treasurer services to Democratic candidates and the odd independent. He is very proud of her. He doesn't directly profit from her work and it doesn't affect his coverage. (He does not always favor her clients, though she might hesitate to take one that he truly hated.)
He does advise some local campaigns informally and (so far) without compensation. (If that last bit changes, he will declare the interest.)

What does this say for We the People???? More Americans cast their vote for Dancing with the Stars and American Idle than they do for issues affecting our government! These non-voters are not allowed to complain about anything, if you ask me…

Inge,
I agree with your last statement.
I was raised in a home where the motto was, “If you don’t vote, don’t bitch!” I have never missed an election since I was old enough to vote. I have never been a member of a political party either. I still think they both are just big giant cruise liners headed to hell and that’s not where I want my country to go.
Neither party shows respect for the rule of law and neither of them play fairly. I hope that the trend continues in adding more independents to the voters roles than either party. It might wake them up…
But then again, we will probably be disembarking at our collective destination by the time that happens!

Carl, I completely agree with your thoughts about our gov and where its headed, but I still keep going back to the ballot box. I also vote Independent or in Ca. its called refuse to say or something like that. I did make the mistake of checking the Independent box though, until someone pointed out it was a branch of the Rep. party. Sneaky bastards! Before that I was a Dem for many yrs but when they became like the Repubs. I switched.

I voted since I was 18…not all local ones though but always the big ones and issues. If there was something I didn’t understand on the ballot, I leave it blank.

It’s the “American Independent Party” (which nominated George Wallace in 1968), which gets a lot of extra registrations because people think that they’re registering independent. This last cycle, “Decline to State” turned into “No Party Preference.”

In the last decade, 100,000 people have come to Anaheim… and then gone. I suspect Santa Ana would have a similar figure. Voter purges are always terrifying to populists, but while I have not examined the procedures undertaken (and their effects) with anything but a passing review, I was somewhat mollified by the fact that most of this ‘purge’ is comprised of ballot samples not getting mailed out. A significant number of people not getting those anymore can still vote in their local polling place, or file a special ballot at another location. I don’t see anything in this blog that’s too scary either…
I guess I walk away from this issue thanking the force that this isn’t a farther-reaching, true purge.

*They are closing the Ratskeller in German Old World on Sunday. They are turning
the entire building into Office Space. Knudsen Milk has gone out of business and was bought out by Alta Dena Diary. They made the best dairy products in the state. Times are changing…..and people are sick of Republican Obstructionism….over the last 4 years. If they had been able to take credit for fixing Immigration or the cost of
perscription drugs with Medicare and Medicaid, Regulated the Big Banks, Kept Medical Insurance cost from rising 100%, supporting small business and making sure they could secure loan money at the Big Bank rates…..and about 20 more…….maybe…just
maybe….the voter turn out may have been much better. The Republicans have Ben Gazzi and taking away anything they see as their platform. Ain’t goin fly…..now or in the years to come. We had been Reagan Country until 2008…….we are now Obama Country…..and the worm has turned. The number of voters in Orange County will continue to fall like a rock….until the Democrats can motivate their Latino and Asian base to get active and run and/or vote in every election….like real Americans do.

You’ll all be glad to know that, based on our calculations showing views at our archives, President Obama’s comments on the attractiveness of California AG Kamala Harris has already almost bought Vern another cup of coffee. So there’s some good economic news to offset the bad employment numbers!